Something truly remarkable unfolded in Waterbury, Connecticut last week at the Fifth District congressional convention, and I don't want to get in the way of it with too much of an introduction. The story, which I wrote with Rachel Cohen, is here and below.
(Rachel has her own newsletter btw, which is very good.)
How a Congressional Convention Upset Led to Calls For a Probe Into Vote-Tampering
By any conceivable metric, Jahana Hayes had no chance. She launched her campaign just 12 days before Connecticut's convention for the 5th Congressional District race on May 14, with no infrastructure, no real funding, and no prior political experience.
She was facing off against a well-known, well-financed candidate who was largely expected to walk away with the nomination to replace the outgoing Elizabeth Esty unchallenged.
But her bid began picking up momentum almost as soon as she launched it. Her 2016 National Teacher of the Year designation earned her the attention she needed to get her calls returned, and delegations to the convention agreed to hear out her last-minute pitch. Local unions got excited, with firefighters, United Auto Workers, and others getting behind her.
Were Hayes to somehow come out on top, she would become the first black candidate ever nominated by Connecticut Democrats. She would be the only black person -- man or woman -- serving in the U.S. House or Senate from all of New England. She would also become one of only a few black members of Congress serving a district where white people make up a majority of the voting population.
But she had overcome much higher odds. The Berkeley Heights housing project, where she grew up, is just four miles away from Crosby High School, where the convention was held, but last Monday, it felt like it was a world away. She was not making the journey alone. Outside of the convention was a scene not typical of Connecticut political events. A middle school drumline, known as the Berkeley Knights Drill Team and Drum Corp, was banging away out front, on hand to support their alumna.
Hayes got in line with them. "I knew all the steps and everybody's like, 'How do you know that?' I'm like, 'Because they haven't changed it,'" she told The Intercept. "It was born in the projects just to give us something to do."
Inside the convention auditorium, Hayes had flashbacks, as she spoke to the delegates from the same stage she would have walked across 28 years ago to pick up her diploma, had a pregnancy at 17 not gotten in the way. ("I always wanted to be a teacher, but when that happened, I was like, well, I guess I screwed that one up," she told The Intercept.)
But Hayes was back, after battling through a school for expectant teens, then low-wage jobs, community college, her first teaching job, and graduate school. On stage, eyes were locked on the screen tallying the votes of the delegates, as it delivered the most unexpected news: The votes were in, and Hayes had won a majority, which local news reports put at 172-168. Her backers, along with the former students who'd come to see her, exploded in celebration.
But the night was far from over.
FULL STORY HERE
And once you've read it, if you're inclined to make this right by contributing to Hayes's campaign, I'm not one to tell you what to do, but you can do that here.
In the wake of the Gina Haspel fight that was never made a real fight, Jon Schwarz asks what the difference between Trump and Schumer is when it comes to foreign policy. After you get beyond style, it's a harder question than you'd think.
Texas runoffs are on Tuesday! Aside from the Laura Moser race, there are a bunch of others that'll be interesting to see shake out. Here's background on one, which pits a former Republican against underfunded progressive with a ton of grassroots momentum. See you late tomorrow night!
P.S. For a Texas-sized laugh,
here's Laura Moser reading mean tweets directed her way.
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